Next-Generation Retail: How Can Brands Shape CX Post-Covid?

By Gita Samani – Strategy Director, Astound Commerce 

How should online retailers and brands be thinking about CX in response to changes in customer behaviour as a result of Covid-19?

The old models for building an ideal customer experience (CX) online and in-store have been upended and fundamentally changed during the course of the pandemic. Where once the focus was on building different CX for each channel, Covid-19 has served as a wakeup call to build a strategy around the customer that can deliver a seamless, consistent, and frictionless experience for the whole buying journey, no matter the channel nor the touchpoint. 

Even now that the UK has begun to unlock – and with a tentative ‘terminus’ date set for the full lifting of restrictions – it's clear that there won’t be a full return to the ‘old normal’ anytime soon.

First, consumers will continue to be aware of their own safety, and this is certain to affect customer confidence at least through 2021. And that’s just at home. With vaccinations being staggered globally, these fears will increase when people look to travel abroad once again.

Secondly, the landscape of people’s lives has changed. While workers contemplate a return to the office, many will do so slowly or partially. This means consumers are still in a state of flux as they try to embed the work–life balance that they were suddenly allowed, often for the first time, to embrace during lockdown, and embark on new lifestyles and work schedules. As a result, their shopping behaviours have not only changed but have become more unpredictable.

It is also now abundantly clear that e-commerce as a proportion of all retail will continue to rise. New customer segments came online during lockdown and found it worked for them - for its safety, ease, and convenience. And this accelerated digital demand has been sustained: even when stores have reopened, online remains the channel of choice for shoppers – perhaps explaining why even last month, in-store footfall remained almost a third down on pre-pandemic levels (BRC-Sensormatic IQ Footfall Monitor, May 2021).

And even where a store may allow for pick-up or click-and-collect, the journey will have been managed primarily online, including browsing for products and promotions, ordering, delivery tracking, and returns.

What this all adds up to for retailers and brands is a huge challenge unless they are fully tuned into their customers’ needs and behaviours, and then able to build a CX that leads ideally to lower acquisition costs, higher conversion, larger baskets, and more frequent spend.

For instance, after long periods of being confined to their homes, in the last 12 months many have shifted their focus from the far horizons of the office and the beach to their own neighbourhoods and communities, resulting in a growing interest in local retail, brands, and services. While they may later return to many of the brands they favoured before lockdown, there is certain to be a mix of large and small, global and local in their new preference profiles.

Local or global, consumers are also looking much more closely at brands to determine how committed they are to sustainability, diversity, and enlightened working conditions for both their own and supplier employees. These elements are all being rolled into the purchase decision-making process, adding even more complexity for the brand in being able to tell the right story online whilst also enabling a personal, frictionless, and engaging online experience.

Add to this the challenge of designing the perfect online experience for consumers whose expectations, already high before the pandemic, have now risen to new heights, dependent as they are now on so much more of their lifestyle and spend on the internet.

In creating and continuously curating the customer experience, there is therefore a balance to be struck between the rational and the emotional. The rational is still about creating a frictionless shopping journey from browse to buy, optimised from point-to-point seamlessly in the buying journey. The emotional, on the other hand, is about trying to emulate the in-store experience: adding content about product material, sourcing, production, and transport, as well as rich content featuring products in context, be it via influencer lifestyles or tutorials, live chat with store associates online, or through AR (augmented reality) or VR (virtual reality) capabilities.

This content needs to be broadened for new consumer lifestyles, which may well mean that online services become as important as products as brands move to offer self-improvement classes, DIY tutorials, and outfit recommendations.

These virtual experiences may well be critical to converting e-commerce sales where they include personal shopping appointments through video conferencing, connecting employees directly to customers, augmented reality for trying on clothes or operating electronics, or creating virtual travel experiences designed to drive bookings. 

Where a physical connection is made for click-and-collect or curbside delivery, brands need to ensure the beautifully structured experience that begins online continues in-person. The experience may also need to emphasise safety to include self-serve, contactless, and touchless or unattended fulfilment options.

So, when it comes to building perfect CX for the new ‘post-Covid’ consumer, here are my top five things to consider:

• Digital-first means data-first.
  Your starting point is collecting and analysing your customer data across multiple touchpoints so that you are able to surface the right information within proposed experiences. Then you can build out a CX strategy that’s truly built around the customer based on this insight

• Apply customer data insights across channels.
  Once you have done a deep dive into your customer data, you will have the right source data and guidelines to build both physical and online experiences that recognise the increasingly cross-channel journeys customers are now making.

• What does service look like and where are my CX gaps?
  Think about how customers are served in the best way at each touchpoint, closing any gaps that can arise when they are looking for help that could cause friction in the buying journey.

• Power personalisation to build in agility.
  Incorporate personalisation capabilities so that you can respond to each customer’s individually chosen journey and build in agility to react quickly to their behaviour as it changes. That could either be via personalisation-specific solutions, or by making use of attribution tools so that bespoke marketing, promotion, rewards, and sales strategies can be developed based on knowing who is buying.

• Review your tech ecosphere in the round, and make sure CX goes beyond the buy button.
  Work with technology partners to fill any potential gaps in the perfect experience, such as the last mile for fulfilment or Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) for payments, which is most likely handled by a third party. By investing in optimised CX beyond the buy button through improved check-out, last mile, and returns, you’re more likely to keep shoppers in a loyalty loop with your brand, helping grow customer lifetime value and reduce the cost of reacquiring that shopper

How will you evolve your technology stack to meet the post-pandemic needs of your customers and employees?

Bio

Gita leads Astound Commerce’s Strategy and Consulting practice. She has over 20 years of retail experience, with the last 15 years focused on digital and e-commerce for brands including The White Company, Michael Kors, Debenhams, and House of Fraser.

Leading a team of consultants, Gita provides thought leadership and client advice to support growth of businesses in the digital space. As Strategy Director, she is responsible for driving Astound Commerce forward to achieve their North Star goals.